SIREN OUT OF CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 10

SIREN OUT OF CONTROL.

GREAT ALARM AT BLENHEIM. CROWDS THRONG STREETS. UNFOUNDED FEARS OF DISASTER. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] BLENHEIM, Saturday. A prolonged blast from a steam traction engine caused great alarm and excitement in Blenheim last evening and before the cause was discovered hasty steps were taken by various authorities to prepare for disaster. When proceeding toward Blenheim by the middle Renwick Road at about six o'clock the driver of Mr. Gilford's steam traction engine seized hold of the lanyard attached to the engine whistle with the idea of sounding a warning as the ungainly vehicle neared Murphy's cross road. He did not anticipate that the mere pulling of the string would set all Blenheim by tho ears, but it did. In response to his tug tho whistle blew dutifully, but once it raised its raucous voice nothing could induce it to stop. For ten minutes the siren screeched and the effect in Blenheim was magical, ii laughable. The attendants at the fire station, mistaking the sound for an alarm of fire from tho gas works whistle rang the fire bell and players on tennis courts and bowling greens dropped racquets and bowls and poured into the streets, while helmeted firemen on bicycles pedalled frantically toward the fire station. Business was abandoned. All this time the traction engine kept up its wail and soon nearly all of Blenheim's 5000 residents were in tho streets, peering anxiously round to see what disaster threatened. A special squad of police turned out and tho river board inspector, fearing that a cloudburst in the hills had brought the rivers down in unexampled fury, telephoned. desperately up-river, seeking information. The power board's line gang assembled in case the alarm concerned a break in the main 33,000-volt transmission line. What might have happened next it is hard to say, but at this stage, with the aid of a wet sack, the traction engine crew succeeded in mastering the recalcitrant whistle. After that there was a dead silence and everybody went .home.